A Mirror, Darkly
by Krahae
Summary: Titans Tower West shines out over the bay, a beacon of what it means to be a hero. Below it, a shadow stretches toward the city, watching. Waiting. Some things are best left forgotten, but then - where's the fun in that? DCU/AU not Fate /Possible Slash
1. Ch01, Toys in the Attic

**A Mirror, Darkly**

_Ch.1 – Toys in the Attic_

* * *

She stared at the mask, the empty, slanted eyes staring back at her, measuring her.

Behind her, she felt rather than heard Jinx's step. "Hey, you ready?"

"Yeah." Raven answered, reaching up to pull the shielding back down around the case that held the artifact, before it could be seen. "Told you not to come in here, things aren't all that safe," she chided, ushering the Thief away from her sanctum. And, the latest trophy in her collection. Years since her father's defeat, she'd continued the trend she originally set forward, the chain of events that lead to her being able to defeat him. Working with the Titans, her own growth, her getting an apartment with Jinx. So much had changed since she left Azarath. One thing, being her trend in collecting souvenirs from her adventures. It was, she mused some times, like a more morbid version of the Titan's own evidence locker. Things had changed, since those days.

So had she.

Stepping back into the light of her living room, her roommate trailing behind slightly, Raven picked up her T-Comm, looking back and smiling. "Don't get caught."

Jinx grinned, saluting. "Try and catch me," she lilted, in their familiar parting ritual. Raven folded into the darkness of the doorway, rather than using the door, shifting directly to the Tower Jinx knew. Picking up her own Hive-styled Comm, she snapped it open and grinned again, eyes glinting in the half-light of the apartment's living room.

"Hive, it's showtime."

I OoO I

"Nice of you to join us," Changeling said, rolling his eyes. Since Raven's slight break away from the other Titans, he'd become more and more hostile in his jibes at the quiet empath. Her often slight delay in arriving for muster and alarms being his usual venue to vent this.

Cyborg rolled his eye, swatting the green man on the back, "Lay off, man. She needed space – and so she took it. Some days I wish I could do the same. Place gets crowded."

Nightwing stood before the main display, the meeting room darkened slightly to aid visibility. Titans West assembled in this room, to plan, organize and set up weekly schedules. Cassie sat, fidgeting with her hair, the stylized double "W" on her tank top glinting in the screen's light. Connor, his black t-shirt with his own identifying mark, the "S" of his adopted and half-biological family there in red, looked to the young Amazon and grinned.

"Looks fine, Cass," he commented quietly, making the girl blush slightly. Turning back to screen, and Nightwing's glare, he heard a stifled giggle behind him.

To Connor's left sat the current Flash, his mentor passing on the mantle within the last year. Wally West had settled into the role without much fanfare, his demeanor calming slightly, as he explored the extent of his abilities. Time opened up new possibilities to him, as his power and ability with the Speed Force grew and changed. The loss of his mentor, as well as the knowledge he'd passed on, tempered the hotheaded youth and the current holder of the name Flash passed that stability on to his teammates. "Guys, keep the flirting till after the meeting, then you can go double with the prince and princess," he said in an aside just loud enough to carry, earning him a glare from the two couples present.

Starfire turned back to where she was facing, green eyes closing for a moment as she considered blasting the red-suited speedster. Just a little. Nightwing glanced at her, his eye twitching slightly at yet another interruption, as well as a swipe at his long-past role as Batman's prodigy, the "Prince of Gotham", as it had been serialized. Staring down the room, his blue and black costume seeming to somehow eat the light that wasn't already subdued, Nightwing waited for the assembled to quiet.

"If there aren't any further interruptions..." he began, before turning back to his task. "This week we're breaking some of the patrols down to two's, things have been quiet enough. That's not to say we can relax, but this should give us more training time as well."

Raven looked around the room, memories of the Tower coming back as she allowed. Soon after the Titan's faced the Brotherhood, the league had decided that not only was the team of sufficient ability to train a second segment, a Titans East, but also expand their roster. Members shuffled back from one to the other as needed, but to this day the current attendees were the most common in their west coast incarnation.

"Schedules for patrols and Tower duty rosters for those using the dorms are being forwarded to your Comms," Nightwing concluded, prepared to dismiss them when the alarms sounded, a few groans from the table following.

Cyborg was first to access the workstation near him, voicing the reason behind the klaxon as Nightwing toggled it silent. "Seems there's some issue on the south side. Alarms tripped in an old warehouse, weird. No ownership listed, but it's on the hardline alarm system, and on LexCorp's accounts."

At the mention of one of his benefactor's companies, Connor raised a brow. "Guess that means there's something dangerous or valuable there," he noted, cracking his knuckles systematically as he read over the information printing up on the main screen.

"Means it's our business then," their leader said, in directing them to prepare. "Titans, lets go."

I OoO I

Raven sped along the ground, gathering what information she could by sight alone, wary to touch down or get too close before the rest of the team arrived. Flash was holding a few hundred yards back, waiting for the signal to move in. Cyborg, Nightwing and Changeling were arriving together, while Connor, Cassie and Starfire circled in a more distant perimeter, keeping any new developments from slipping through.

"No movement," she reported, an odd thrill working through her at the thought of the upcoming fight. Regardless of distance, she could feel the emotional states of those inside, and the familiar... flavor, she decided, for lack of a better word, woven into it. Tonight would be fun, indeed.

Nightwing's Comm signal flashed, and his report flashed by, "ETA one minute." Those already on site sighted the vehicle Cyborg was operating, a modified JLA scram shuttle, and the smaller silhouette of Changeling shadowing it.

The fliers kept their vigil, while Raven met up with a practically instantaneously appearing Flash at the nearby junction, where the jet touched down. Wary, the Titans had fought against a few nightmares springing up from the supposedly odd abandoned warehouse before, but one from LexCorp warranted some caution. Labs, stored weapons, or any manner of threat could be waiting, and with the alarms sounding only ten minutes ago, whoever was responsible could still be tripping around inside.

"Cyborg, with me. Gar, with Raven. Flash on recon," Looking to the sky, he signaled the three there to hold in case someone tried to slip by or assist, for the time being. "Titans, move in."

As one the groups did so, Flash moving ahead from shadow to shadow to try and get any information that could help with figuring out the reason for the alarm before they tripped on it. Without warning, he literally tripped on something, and the resulting crash set up a boom throughout the area. "Flash, report," Raven heard Nightwing call, without response.

Reaching out with her empathy, she found him, knocked senseless by an explosive mine, apparently set to detonate by air compression. Something tailored to him. "Dick, we're expected," she relayed, noting the speedster was unharmed, just out of the fight for now. Dispensing with subtlety, she drew on her demonic nature and shifted as she glided, blinking in the suddenly bright night as her demon's eyes adjusted to the world. Beside her Gar Logan, formerly Beast Boy, now under the name Changeling winced, but took on a more appropriate form, that of a large hunting cat, and ran along beside, silently. He never really got used to those four eyes.

Cyborg sped up, his servo's whining as he kept pace with the speedy Detective beside him. "Cover fire once we see hostiles," he announced, shifting his cannon into active mode. Nodding, the Titan's leader leapt up, landing on a riser to get a view of the interior. He didn't like what he saw.

"Hive," he announced to his Comm, pulling his escrima sticks from their holsters on his back. Unable to see the entirety of the interior, he figured it best to draw out any opposition. Launching an impact-grenade loaded with a smoke compound, he followed after, subduing some of the unwary who were nearby and unprepared. A yell, and the lights came up, showing him what precisely was going on.

He again, didn't like what he saw.

Cyborg was just getting into position to lay down cover fire when the first wave hit, sending him and Nightwing careening into the nearby wall. "The hell?" the metal man asked, shaking off the impact as he helped the still reeling Detective up.

"Power armor," was his only reply, as the sound of the things filled the interior. Another blast nearly sent the two through a wall, but they were ready this time, moving out of the way. Raven made her move then, clipping the mechanized suit with a controlled girder, sending it crashing with crushing force into the far wall.

Changeling snarled, shifting up into something more useful, and ramming a nearby suit that swung to bear on him as a rhinoceros, shifting again to a gorilla to haul the armor up and block a blast from another nearby as his first target fell.

Analyzing the suits, Cyborg sighed, shaking his head. "Second-gen enviro suits, made for space and deep sea, fitted with sonic drills. Basically construction units," modifying his own cannon's payload, he sprayed the interior with a pulse, causing the assembled armors to jerk and spasm, and finally fall silent. "Notoriously susceptible to fuse dysfunction, due to faulty quartz harmonics."

"Nice work," Nightwing had begun to say, when he was throw across the room again by a green blur, making Cyborg look to Changeling to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

Raven jerked back a moment before a shadow she didn't recognize sprung up and took a shot at her, a pale grinning face topping it. "More! On guard," she'd managed before her assailant sent her into a defensive roll, a flurry of strikes barely missing her.

Gar and Cyborg stood back to back, spinning to survey the half-lit room, as familiar opponents emerged from the shadows. "Dibs on ugly," the metal man called, rushing the new targets with his cannon leading. He'd barely taken four steps before a counterharmonized blast sent him back into a close-following green shifter.

Shaking his head hard, Gar tried to keep his eyes from watering, "Why does everyone got to use loud noises," he griped, looking at the new assailants.

Mammoth seemed to have adjusted some parts of the armors to suit him, a brief chestpiece and wrist mounted array of the drills on his right arm. Boots of similar design finished the outfitting, giving him an oddly proportioned profile. Aiming the new weapon, the drills blinked in array then fired, the eight combined beams cutting a swath through the floor and wall toward the prone pair of heroes. Beside him, Gizmo worked furiously, a more advanced armor adorning a mockup that would allow him to interface it with his own custom systems.

Raven was having some trouble dealing with the shadow fighter she couldn't be rid of, as he seemed impervious to any physical attack and barely three dimensional, if at all. Frustrated, she again dove into her nature and from the darkness of her hood blinked the four slashes marking her the daughter of Trigon. Pausing in confusion for a moment, her attacker was taken off guard when her cloak seemed to fray and foul at the edges, bleeding out shadow of it's own. "Fight fire, with fire," she murmured, voice rasping from the depth of her cloak. Regaining his footing, the shadow-man attacked again, only to be stunned as a lance of shadow seemed to form and drive through his shoulder, from the cloak the girl wore.

The red slashes brightened, as she pressed the advantage, seeming more a thing made out of shifting cloth and darkness than a semblance of a young woman. The frayed cloak's edges took on an arachnid guise, portions stabbing down into the floor to allow others leverage to strike, all the while those burning eyes settled forward to better watch. Below them a feral smile graced her face. Raven liked when they were difficult, after all.

Nightwing dodged another strike by the masked woman he fought, realizing quickly he was nearly outclassed. Her seemingly jointless stance and attack pattern had him dazed, and each time she struck, needle-small picks of numbness flowed from the impacts. He was getting slower with each strike, and realizing this, allowed one to pass his guard.

"Shocking news, that was a trap," he smirked, as the masked woman made contact with his glove's tazer and was literally blown backwards from the voltage. The Detective pulled one of his combat antitoxins and stabbed the syringe into his leg, hoping the chemical cocktail would have a counter to the spreading cold the woman's strikes had set into his bones.

The battle progressed, all fronts giving and taking ground till Nightwing had decided enough was enough. As he was calling in the air team, a sound like rending metal and collapsing concrete drowned him out, as Gizmo and Mammoth's suits drilled a tunnel strait into the subway access below the warehouse district. "Everyone, in. We have what we came for," a female voice called out, as a pink blur descended from the shadows above.

He realized too late what had been going wrong then, as Jinx flashed his group a smile and dove into the tunnel. They'd been fighting with all their best, but with Jinx's hexes subtly working things against them, unseen from above, they'd been slow to counter and overtake the Hive operatives. Cursing his own lack of attention, knowing the probability-shifting witch was always leading the Hive offenses in some way, Richard launched an explosive disk at the retreating forms, only to have it blow early, caving in the tunnel behind them.

Raven glided up beside him, slowly letting her features shift back into the human. "So... did they get away?"

"This time," he said dispassionately, sighing. "Air team; get Flash to the Tower, see if he needs medical. Connor, need you inside, with me and Cyborg and Gar. Everyone else, regroup at base," glaring around the warehouse, he sighed again. He'd gather information with those staying behind, but otherwise... "Tonight was a bust."

Raven nodded, shifting into herself and back to the Tower in a moment, settling down to a console to enter her report. Shrugging off her cloak, the thing scampered to a wall, before turning to the woman, seeming to pause. "Black tea, strong," she informed it, fingers and attention on the screen before her. Seemingly satisfied with her orders, the cloak shifted on it's own through the wall, off to do it's mistresses bidding.

She'd dabbled with infusing her often-used tools and materials with some aspect of her power, but yet hadn't progressed far. At most, she worried that doing so would make her dependent on them, or lose her edge. So far, she only had the cloak, which was tenuously tied to her will, and her mirror which was a much more dangerous object. The cloak seemed to work best in contact with her, but could be directed to do simple things on it's own. She had considered letting one of her emotional facets possess it directly, depending on what was needed, but the possibilities for disaster there were endless. So, for now it was a dumb servant only.

At least it could make tea, while she did her report. Finishing up on her observations and suggestions, as well as entering any data on the event that occurred, she had to admit, things were going against them there from the start. Tapping her chin, she felt rather than heard the scream from Cassie as the new Wonder Girl caught her cloak moving about unattended. Sighing, she finished the process of entering the report to the database, and folded into shadow, filling the cloak from the inside to the apparent discomfort of the blonde powerhouse.

"Holy... could you get creepier?" the girl asked, shivering as she stood in a baggy t-shirt, apparently intent on making something for a late snack.

Smirking slightly, Raven blinked, and four blank, gray eyes regarded the now wide-eyed girl, as her cloak rippled about, small dark creatures crawling from it's own shadow into the depths, a vicious, viscous cycle of movement. "Yes," the rasp from Raven's lips, splitting wide to accommodate a maw of dagger-like teeth hissed, while she stretched and straitened, towering above the girl.

Cassandra nearly shrieked, but blinked in surprise when Starfire came by, giggling at Raven's display, hugging her regardless. "It was good seeing you again, Raven. Will you be spending the night here, or going back to your apartment?"

Shrinking in on herself and regaining her normal guise in the blink of an eye, the half-demon blinked as well, smiling slightly. "Heading home, have some things to talk to the roommate about," she said quietly, a corner of her cloak retrieving a cup of tea idly and handing it to her. "For now, off to the roof to look at some stars. Want to come?"

Shaking her head, the Tamaranian nodded toward a wincing Nightwing, heading to medical as he arrived. "I will be helping with the data analysis, since I was able to bask today." Raven nodded, remembering how sunny it had been. The chipper princess had all day to sit and laze in the sun, absorbing energy to power her metabolism and abilities. That she'd not used much tonight, must have left her very awake and energized.

"Alright then, I'll be back on my patrol, barring alarms," the enigmatic empath said, floating into a shadow and from the room.

Starfire looked to the shaken blonde, smiling dismissively. "She is somewhat hard to get used to, but she hasn't eaten one of your pets, or a hand, so she must not mind you," turning to the refrigerator, she peered over her shoulder at the still immobile Wonder Girl. "Are you hungry? I was going to make a small something before working on the theft data."

"No," the other girl answered, looking somewhat pale. "I think I lost my appetite."

I OoO I

Raven decided to linger, watching as the dome of sky turned over her slowly. An hour passed and she felt the Tower settle back into it's normal patterns, Richard and Cyborg poring over data, while some slept, others idled, some engaged in the process of courtship. She grinned, drinking that last emotional wave in slightly longer, only dimming it slightly.

"Small snack, nothing too filling," she murmured, 'portaling her empty china directly back into the cupboard. She figured it was sufficient to do so, as she'd not sent any errant tea or traces of her own touch on it, as well. Grinning, she was glad for those idle years after the Brotherhood incident. She'd learned a few tricks to write home about.

Provided, they didn't start an interdimensional war just to kill her, anyway.

Shrugging off her dark thoughts, the Titan yawned, and tucked into her cloak, emerging from the darkened apartment's interior from a veritable rip in the air itself.

"Welcome home," a somewhat weary Jinx called, from her bedroom. Raven padded to the door, rapping softly to bid entry. "It's open," the Thief called, muffled this time.

Using the door, probably the only place she ever did, Raven peeked inside and grinned slightly, at the other girl's cluttered, but functionally diverse room. Her training gear was spread about, small and large weights, a suspended bar, treadmill. On one wall leaned a desk, with designs and blueprints scattered about, while along her bedside an array of gadgets and tools made for a hazardous minefield. Overall, it looked well lived-in. "How was your night?" Raven asked, smirking as the Thief pulled her head out of a helmet, her ponytailed hair snapping back out with an audible pop.

Wrinkling her nose, she huffed slightly, "Victor blowing almost all the fuses on the suits wasn't really much fun, but oh well. We got the big deal done," peering at the Titan from the face-guard, she grinned, "Yours?"

"Boring, as usual. Got to scare Cassie though, so I feel better about it," the smirking empath said, settling down beside the Thief where she sat on the large bed. "What's all this for?" She asked, looking over the armor plating, tapping it with a finger lightly.

Shrugging, the Hive girl tossed the helmet to the side with a hollow clang. "Something on Gizmo's wish-list. He'll probably have a working prototype in a week, maybe less depending on his Halo tourney."

"He going to cheat?"

Jinx snorted, "Hell no. He's such a damn purist about online gaming. Makes me want to throttle his Tourette's right out of him."

Raven laughed quietly, looking up at the ceiling of the Thief's room. Posters were plastered all over, but directly over her bed, was an image Raven never could get used to. A blue-skinned demoness lounged, nude, a very distinct 'come-hither' look on her face as she looked out of the frame. She still couldn't believe she'd let Jinx talk her into posing for that painting. Much less let her make a poster of the print. "Ugh, we need to get you better artwork," she observed, probably for the fiftieth time, seeing herself, at least in image, staring back at her.

"Nah, that one keeps me warm at night," the quirky witch replied, winking at the Titan. "Besides, when are you going to do so?" Again she asked, and again Raven simply smiled, shaking her head slowly.

"For now, you make do with the poster," she answered again, used to the Hive girl's advances. She wasn't keeping herself distant because of either of their day-jobs, as she called them, but more for... personal reasons.

Sighing, Jinx began to undress, preparing for either sleep or a shower. Raven rose and fluffed the girl's hair, earning her a glare. "Goodnight, Jinx," she murmured, suddenly feeling the day's weariness and making her way to her own bed.

"Nighty Nightmare," Jinx called after her, making her smile at her nickname. The first time it had been used, a weary Raven had been far into her demon guise when she said goodnight to the perky witch, earning her that pet name. Not minding, she took it in stride, knowing the girl to actually accept and unlike some, enjoy her time in that form.

Jinx always did have a knack for making her feel at ease. Putting such thoughts out of her mind, she instead let her mind linger on what was in her trophy room, a smile slipping along her lips.

Now there... was some potential. She drifted to her bed, warmed as her empathy soaked the small, bright peak that seemed to say her name, from Jinx's shower. Smirking slightly, she cooled her blush and settled to sleep, knowing tomorrow would be busy, in the light of her roommates success.

* * *

A/N: Oho? What? No, I don't know either.


	2. Ch02, Smoke and Mirrors

**A Mirror, Darkly**

_Ch.2 – Smoke and Mirrors_

* * *

Waking early, Raven blinked sleep from her eyes and stumbled to her shower, leaning on the tiled wall heavily, waiting for the water to get up to temperature. She shivered, the cold morning air prickling along her skin unpleasantly, making things ache. "Hurry up," she hissed, willing the small shower stall to obey. In time, it did.

Rinsing sleep away, she contemplated the day, a vague sense of distaste at what was likely going to be required, or rather asked. Something else came to mind, that made her stop suddenly, shampoo getting into her eye irritatingly. Uncharacteristically, she bit her lip and grinned, the idea setting a thrill up along her spine.

Rinsing quickly, the half-demon called to her cloak, not wanting to bother with the inanities of towels and the time needed to dry and preen. It waited, hovering just outside the shower as she shook water free with a wrinkling of her nose. Sighing, she borrowed a trick from her kitchen repertoire and simply shifted into shadow quickly, but controlling it so she left the water along her skin behind. The result, was an odd blur where Raven had been, and the sudden pattering fall of water along the tile. "Huh, neat," she mumbled, inspecting her arm, now dry. Blinking, she realized it also dried her eyes unpleasantly, but such was expected. It was the first time she'd pulled that trick. "Scotty eat your heart out," she murmured, reaching out and letting the cloak slither along her arm and up to her shoulder.

Folding into it, she reappeared in her Trophy Room, directly before the shielded case she'd dreamed of. Running a hand along the dull metal sheath, red runes flared and dimmed, recognizing her as their architect. Modern security was nice, she knew, but nothing beat hell-forged wardings. Presently, the domed cylinder rose, displaying her latest personal triumph in it's glory. She had little idea why the thing held her attention so, the demoness didn't worry on it. It was potential. Possibility. Options. That was reason enough. Running a hand along it's signature feature, she grinned. Time for a test drive.

But first... she'd be missed, if she was... well missing. Shedding her cloak and standing naked in the darkness, she contemplated her options. Finding no simple solution, she reached into the garment, as it curiously peered about, and retrieved her mirror. "Externalization," she commanded it, stepping next to the case as the congress of her mind appeared in their own ways, to join her.

"Oh this is going to be fun-"

"But we have to be careful, if we're caught-"

"Then it'll be over too soon-"

"And maybe we'll have to fight!-"

"Which would be welcome, my cloak is getting dull-"

"I wonder how my tits are going to fit in that-"

"...Quiet," she ordered, as the myriad other emotions, less powerful that the primaries that seemed to speak up the loudest, backed away to give her breathing room. "I need options. I have to be in the Tower soon, and I'd like to play with my new... toy," running a hand along the contours of the suit, she did have to wonder, how would the thing fit around her-"

"I believe the best option, would be something you've debated once before," Knowledge conceded, head tilted in thought. "If you plan on using that... then some of us would actually be hindering you. On the other hand, those same could proxy your presence sufficiently, we feel."

Nodding, Raven considered her own point. "Who would it be?"

"Morality, Duty, Conscience." Knowledge nodded as the three stood forward, and Raven smirked. Hinder her indeed. She worried once that her concentrated emotional forms had autonomy, would act on their own without her, but such was really impossible. She was, they were, all her. Regardless of her difference of opinion, seemingly, between them, there was no argument or failing to act in accord. She could decide to kill, and had done so, much to the chagrin of some voices, and the thrill of others. Regardless, they all acted in concert. It was an odd condition, she admitted, but so was she. Heir of Hell, holder of the Crown of Asmodeus, The Seed of Wrath. Ah, the joys of family, she mused. Nodding, she broke her introspection, beckoning the three aspects forward. The process wouldn't be difficult, and luckily none of the others in the Tower had the ability to sense a difference in her so drastic.

Her only concern were tasks that required any depth. With her fundamental self so split, it would be difficult. She would reason that out in time. "Bound in darkness, you three; Toward the light, face thee; In my place, stand free; To my task, free me." The incantation was simple, more a formality but needful. Magic need not be complicated, she knew. It was desire, the will to dispose of illusions and imprint that will upon the universe that mattered.

Few could rival her power of will.

The three facets of her self shimmered and merged, as the cloak wrapped around them, seemingly pulling them into a single form. Raven stood before herself, then, the congress of her mind dismissed back to Nevermore. Blinking, her simulacrum smirked slightly, tugging the cloak more closely about it's naked form. "Damned cold mornings," it swore in her voice.

"Luck on your deception, make sure Jinx has breakfast before you lea-"

Rolling violet eyes, the three-made-one sighed, reaching up and taking Raven's shoulders. "Many in body, singular in mind. You're talking to yourself, literally," it reminded her, and Raven shook her head ruefully. She had the odd sensation of being in two places at once, looking out from her eyes, seeing herself twice. Truly, she was in two places at once. And one of her was getting colder by the moment.

"See you later," she said, grinning, as the cloaked self folded and went to clothe itself. She could feel it, a tendril of her own thoughts flowing to and from the Other. It was disconcerting, but she was quickly acclimatizing. So had the cloak been odd, initially. Perhaps she would do this more often... contemplating, she mused she could literally shunt facets to and from body to body if needed, as each was a soul-form, her will strong enough to hold them cohesive. An interesting idea.

A smiling Raven lifted free the suit that lay supine on the stand, the slight bulk of the thing deceptive. The man who'd recently worn it had died ingloriously, falling and drowning in the bay surrounding Blüdhaven mysteriously. Raven had been dispatched to take stock of the man's dwelling, for clues to his possible death, when she found the hidden access to an abandoned floor of the building. With all entrances cut off, and the building itself derelict, the massive support lab the suit inhabited was duly suspect. Once she'd seen the mask though... much made sense.

She'd claimed all the important files, yet something stalled her. Memories of betrayal, of the concept of being someone other than oneself had filled her. Something clicked, and rather than forward the lab data to the Tower, she'd kept it, teleporting all related material to her Trophy Room while she destroyed the building, collapsing it in on itself to mask her find.

And now, she had it. She slipped on the supporting primary layer, an interface skin that molded to her feminine curves. Switching on the underskin, she went through a series of movements, familiar to her from her time in the Tower. A readout on the forearm signaled the underskin understood her frame and center of balance, as well as her range of motion. Smiling, she donned the outer layer, surprised as the thing shifted of it's own, thickening in places, thinning in others. In the now open shell of the casing she hid the treasure, she inspected her now androgynous form, vaguely feminine in it's slight build, but also hinting at broad shoulders and lacking obvious curves. She rotated her limbs, again in the same motions so familiar, as the suit shifted more, bulk redistributing to allow her full movements and support, while it's systems redistributed to fulfill the guise. Lastly, she donned he mask, noting with surprise the readout along the inside, informing her of all the processes she'd taken for automatic, some requiring attention.

Unsure how to proceed, she remembered that like some of the previous technology used by the creator of this suit, a neural link was used for complex systems. Hesitantly, Raven placed the mask on her head, a small prick in the back of her neck alerting her to the suit's invasion.

A hiss in her ears, or rather her concept of hearing-

_Rrrrrssvsda aiaahh eEEehh Ayeeeeeiee Ouuuohhh Youuu. Interface linguistics adjusted. _

_Primary reserve power 73 percent, secondary reserve absent. Shell integrity 82 __percent__. User interface sync 23 __percent__. Suggestion: Review somatic trigger and interface schema. Suggestion: Replace secondary power. Suggestion..._

She noted the suit's readouts, the information disturbingly being shunted directly into her mind. Not one to use technology often, Raven was taken aback at the thing's complexity, reevaluating the creator in her mind. When she did so, something interesting occurred to distract her.

_Subject, Richard Grayson. Target adjustment preconfigured, no further augmentation needed. _

Raven blinked, but quickly realized what that meant. She conjured ideas of others to mind-

_Subject, Jinx. Target adjustment absent. Load default schema or input new?_

Not the response she'd expected. She tried again-

_Subject, Superboy. Target adjustment absent. Load default schema or input new?_

"Damnit," she swore to herself, this time opting to input but gaining yet another annoyance in the process-

_Configuration menu. Please access database material to configure combat adjustment mode._

Concentrating, she tried to 'relate' to the suit, all the information she could of the young kryptonian, which only resulted in-

_Brrzzzeeeeeeee- Interface threshold passed. Power spike shunted, reserve power at 72 __percent__. Please access formated data to proceed with combat adjustment mode._

Shaking off the noise in her head, Raven considered those words... formatted database. Of course. Smirking slightly, she contacted her doppelganger, as it conversed with Jinx

"-get the Tower roster database.. no. Full Tower and if you can, JLA personnel and records databases," she informed her double, growing more excited by the moment. Her Other would use the excuse of needing the information for research and training... which was true. For what, was for her to know.

She relaxed, communing with the suit again-

_Subject, Raven. Target adjustment preconfigured, no further augmentation needed. _

Oho, she mused. Curiouser and curiouser... she dove into that idea, wanting details-

_Adhesive matrix loaded into memory. Neural inhibitive gas matrix loaded into memory. Adjusted neural feedback loop initiated. Reactionary accelerators engaged._

Eyes widening, she felt a surge of adrenaline, before she seemed to settle back into her thoughts. Experimenting, she moved her arm slightly, noticing with some wonder how simple the motion seemed, like she was willing something made of smoke as opposed to flesh and bone. Curiouser and curiouser. Deciding not to use the weaponry, she dismissed the thoughts of her double, and noted the suit powered down, back to it's idle state. She noted with interest the readout of her reserve power was steadily flashing, the heads up display moving very slowly in this state. She figured the suit could idle for years, doing only simple math and interfacing. Interesting.

So much potential. She delved into memory, dredging up different people, Titans and Hive members, but only found records for her own basic, historic team and Slade, with some broken data for Batman and what she had to assume was a new Robin. She'd remedy that soon enough.

First, she needed to take the new toy for a test run. "Suggestion, replace secondary power, eh? Well, that's a good start." Securing the mask, she moved and stretched, noting how the suit adjusted, the mechanics in it flowing with her movements. "This is going to be fun," she lilted, the eyes behind the mask glowing brightly a moment.

The suited girl disappeared in a hazing shift, before falling practically out of the ceiling onto her ass back onto the floor. "Ouf! What the-"

_Primary interface method unrecognized, neural lockdown initiated. Please resume recognized input method. _

Blinking, Raven tried to shunt her hand into a shadow, only the rap her knuckles hard on the wall. "Ow!"

_Primary interface method unrecognized, neural lock-_

"Right, ok, I get it. I can be this or me, but not both," analyzing the wording of the warnings, she grinned for a moment. "Yet." Shrugging, Raven looked about the room, seeing nothing that would aid her, but remembering that supposedly this suit had not only been worn by, but completely understood certain individuals... "This is going to sting," she murmured, a small smirk on her lips, as she ordered the interface to feed her information, rather than receive it.

Arching her back, she grunted, arms straining to her sides as she trembled, her mind assaulted with foreign information, bypassing the suit's protocols for safety. She was unworried; if she broke this body, she could remake another. It was her soul-self that housed what was fundamentally Raven. That was safe from this thing. She hoped.

Hours she felt passed, as her teeth ground and grinded from the pain, but suddenly as it came, it left her, and she slumped, falling heavily to the floor to lay, dazed for many minutes. When she regained some sense of cognizance, the demon rose, shaking off the torpor of the forced feedback with an anxious grin.

She flipped forward onto her feet, sweeping a kick to the air and then going through a precise series of attacks, all aimed for nerve points or critical load-bearing joints.

For the hell of it, she swept the leg as well.

Bouncing in place, she grinned manically. "Hwoah... I know kung fu."

I OoO I

Alarms sounded throughout the Tower, and on cue, the Titans assembled in the meeting room quickly, Raven folding into her seat without a word. Nightwing looked to the screen and paled, similar looks on a number of the more veteran Titan's faces.

"This is big," he said, back to his group. "Computer, access files and download to Comms," listing a few names, the machine did as it was bid, sending profiles and relevant data to each Titan's Comm, for those their leader listed. Nodding, he turned and dismissed them, hurrying to the Scramjet bay beside Cyborg. "Titans, move out."

The metal man looked to him, running beside his longtime friend as they approached the bay. "You think it could be-" he began, cut off as Nightwing turned to him.

"No way. He's been gone too long. Has to be someone else."

Shrugging, Victor continued to the jet, wondering why then the file was sitting in his memory. "Lets go see, I'm worried about that stuff out of principal."

"No doubt, lets get this done fast." Hopping into the pilot's chair, he keyed the machine on, Cyborg joining him in the secondary.

The Titans had moved out on their own means, Raven unfolding nearby as Flash nearly ran into her. Grinning at the speedster, she pointed to the tower they were receiving alerts from, a single broken window on the top floor the only evidence from their position there was trouble. "We'll have to come in from the bottom," she murmured, keying her Comm open. "Any reply on getting us security clearance to proceed?"

"Nothing yet," Nightwing replied, closing in on their position. "Kori, Connor, proceed to follow in by the point of entry. Cass, back up Raven and Flash. Gar, we're in on wave two, behind Raven's team. All in, no backup this time."

Affirmatives sounded, as the Titans rounded to approach their appointed points of entry. Raven saw with a distant detachments as Starfire and Superboy went through the same broken window that looked to be the thief's – or whatever had set the alarm off, point of entry. As the jet landed, and the second team prepared to move in, an explosion went off – from behind them.

A car, simply parked in a curbside space, blew up and obscured the jet for a time, making Cyborg nervous. He didn't want the fuel to ignite from the proximity of another explosion. Scanning the area, he didn't pick up anything, simply the wreckage. "Decoy," he announced, locking down the Jet with a security transmission.

"Affirmative," Nightwing answered, as they received sporadic reports and confirmations from the two other teams. Raven was doing her best to avoid damaging things, teleporting from secure room to secure room for some distance into the facility, since they didn't have clearance yet. Kori and Connor were at an impasse, finding shortly inside a series of unpassed doors with no trace of force that they'd seen from above.

Nightwing felt something wasn't quite right about this. "No further sign? What does this mean..." he pondered, but shook his head, dismissing the notion. He had to be sure. "Raven, progress," he called, wanting to check on their spearhead team. They had first contact if something was up, it seemed.

Raven kept her report constant, not allowing a pause in the flow of information to leave them in the dark. "Nothing, no breaches. No bypasses. I don't think they came this far."

"Computer systems up here aren't damaged, but some are active," Connor called, getting Nightwing's attention. "Looks like some mining information was taken."

"Makes sense," Cyborg added, scanning the area by the primary lab lobby with his own sensors. Nothing but their first wave's evidence was there. "I'm with Raven; don't think they came this far Fearless."

Nodding, Nightwing sighed, turning to the doors they'd come in from. "Do a cursory scan of surveillance, Vic. Gar, go wait for the locals, let them know what's up. Team one, extract and regroup to the Tower. Kori, Connor get me an exact copy of what was taken." Snapping his Comm closed with a sigh, the former Robin looked again to the burning wreckage of the car with a glare. He could imagine that being a mistake, perhaps, of a novice but...

"Got an ID on a local anti-meta picked up by the PD's on the way in. Had traces of high explosive on him. Got our bomber it seems," Raven announced, her Comm chirping the data Gar was sending.

Changeling snorted, head shaking to the screen. "Seems awfully coincidental. But hey, what can you do..." closing his own Comm, the shifter greeted the local police as they pulled up, detailing them on the Titan's actions so far.

Connor's ID transmitted a mission green, not bothering to transmit with PD's present. Too much red tape got choking, they all knew. Leaving by the same window, the two fliers made a speedy path back to the Tower, as Raven, dismissed to do the same, folded her team and beat them there.

"Brrraaaah, that's weird," Wonder Girl shivered, rubbing goose-fleshed arms in the aftermath of her riding the shadowways with Raven.

Flash nodded, stretching in the Tower's main room, grinning suddenly. "But hey, almost as fast as me." Raven elbowed him in the side for the remark, but none the less favored him with a grin. "What now?" the speedster asked, as his team milled about nervously, data from the mission collecting from their Comms, while Raven moved to a terminal to type out her reports.

Nightwing's voice broadcast from the main system, seemingly from all corners, "Nothing else we can do, but analyze that data from the top floor computers, and see if we can beat whoever it was to the next step."

Shortly, the Jet touched down, shadowed by the the other fliers and Changeling, the landing bay opening up atop the massive Tower.

Sparing the Jet a quick once over, Cyborg joined his teammates in the Tower proper, as they all went about post-mission duties. The vehicle was riding oddly, probably some accessory damage from the car blast to one of the wings. He'd check it over after reports, wanting to download the data and clear his temporary memory ASAP.

The Titans collected in the main room again, trading theories and ideas when Raven approached Nightwing, a curious expression on her usually stoic features. "You ok?" She asked simply, knowing he would understand the question.

Nodding briefly, he favored her with a small smile, shrugging. "Paranoid, maybe. I hate my mistakes coming back to haunt me, that was a lose end we never tied up."

"We have a lot of those," the empath said quietly, nodding. "I was wondering, since I spend so much time at home, if I could have a copy of the database entries, so I can keep myself updated on things." Nodding to the terminals she was often seen using after missions, she shrugged. "I guess it's one of the drawbacks of being in an unsecured area. Can't 'dial in'," she noted.

Nodding absently, Nightwing keyed in the proper accesses, granting Raven privileges to access the secure files from the Tower's computers. Moving to a terminal, the empath pulled a flash drive from her pocket and went about the task of copying those files, when the Tower alarm sounded.

As one, the Titans looked to one another then the main display, a map scrolling by with a single room in red. "Evidence stora-NO!" Nightwing dashed from the room, in close pursuit by the collected Titans. Raven was as usual first on the scene, standing by the door shaking her head.

"No one has come or gone by me since I was out here," she said, eyeing the door critically. The vault access was intact, something they'd not expected. "I opened it briefly to look inside, but there wasn't anything out of place," she added, looking away.

"Dangerous, we need to be careful here, there's a lot of dangerous toys in there," Nightwing chided, but his heart wasn't in it. Raven was as concerned as he was; her emotions coming through, showing her anxiety as she was being proof. "Flash, Cassie, stay out here. Everyone else in. Be ready for anything."

As one, the Titans dashed inside, the heavy vault door barely open before they'd rushed the room. Corners and darkened coves ruled the room, until Starfire murmured the current watch password, lighting the room brilliantly. All seemed in order, but one wall safe was open, it's contents missing.

"How?" was all Nightwing said, shaking his head. "How, after all this time."

The others had no answer for him, as the harried young man slammed his hand into the now empty vault. Nothing else had been touched – and he saw now what they'd overlooked. "The Jet. He used the explosion to get in the Jet. Then into storage somehow, and now he's got the secondary power generator!

"Damnit, why did you have to reappear, Red-X? Why now, after so many years?" Nightwing stalked back out of the room, shoving the ton-heavy vault door savagely on it's liquid bearings. The dull boom of the thing hitting the wall was a signal for the others to unfreeze, unused to their leader being so emotional about anything.

Cyborg cleared his throat, remembering there was still a threat possibly loose in the Tower. "Kori, go check on him. Rae, Flash, head topside; sweep to the basement, opposite routes. Gar, you do the same with me, bottom up," Sighing, the metal man shook his head sadly. "Man, thought we'd never see that ghost again..."

I OoO I

Tumbling into her bedroom, Raven squealed happily, hugging a heavy duffel bag to her chest, quite naked to the casual eye. Closer inspection revealed the red lining in a circuit-like pattern along her skin, the interface layer of the suit still on.

The plan was so simple, it was... criminal. Laughing again she remember the look on Richard's face, pulling on her Other's perception when the vault was discovered empty. "Oh, that was good. I never knew this could be so much... fun!" Bouncing where she had sprawled, she grinned, listening to the sound of her roommate swear and curse, working on something in the room over.

"Jinx!" She called, rewarded with a sudden yelp as the girl did something wrong with whatever she was working on again. Grinning, the empath could sense the girl's curiosity – Raven never yelled through walls.

Padding to her door, the Thief knocked, opening the door after as Raven seemed to be just getting back in, pulling a fresh cloak on. "I thought that cursed beachtowel ate dirt," she observed dryly, commenting on her seemingly absent typical mantle.

Raven turned and grinned, shaking her head, "Its on an errand," she held up a small flash drive, the one her Other had passed her during the small uncertain period in the Tower. Raven hadn't lied – either of her. She did open the vault door, before her Other had arrived, but only by fractions of a moment. Already peeled out of her new suit, the Titan had used knowledge gleaned from the security system to get into the vault, the whole process of retrieving the belt taking less than a minute. Her other had held it's cloak open, as Raven dived into it – and subsequently back home, moments before the Titan's arrived.

Tower security could verify it all. Cameras weren't an issue, she knew where they all pointed, and was pointedly not there when they swung around. Coordinating two bodies was taxing, but all had gone as planned. Even if someone had tried to verify her actions based on a magical scan, they'd only find her 'porting to the vault, and only once was it opened.

She had a fully assembled suit, the data she needed to program it's systems, and the glowing sensation of doing something completely wicked and new. And getting away with it. "What kind of computer system do you have, in that toybox you call a room?"

Blinking, the disheveled Jinx shrugged, wiping a smudge of grease from below her eye. "Just my laptop, why? New porn collection to browse?" Grinning, she reached for the drive, only to grip air, the Titan pulling it away. "Awe, stingy."

Shaking her head and laughing silently, Raven leaned back, giving the Thief's quick eye an interesting view of collar and thigh. Swallowing, Jinx cleared her throat and and looked back to the Titan's face. "Well. Maybe we can look it over, over some tea," the violet-haired girl offered.

"Sounds good, I could use a break anyway," the Hive girl agreed, turning to her own room to retrieve her computer. Raven moved to the kitchen, but turned, going back to her room and retrieving her leotard and belt, tucking the mask into it quickly, hurrying out to meet the young witch as she settled down at the table, water already on the boil.

Raven sat, keeping her cloak carefully tucked around her secret for the moment. "So what are you working on in there, sounded somewhat serious."

"New hair ties," the girl answered promptly, causing the Titan to blink.

Raven's mouth worked silently, as she thought about that a moment. "Er. What?"

Turning, Jinx grinned over her shoulder, "You think this is magic?" Gesturing to her hair, the girl wrinkled her nose, laughing. "Never could get that spell to work right anyway. Gizmo worked out some new ones, side project."

"But why all the cursing and... it sounded like you were forging metal in there?" Raven asked, brow furrowed.

"Oh. Well that's different, why didn't you say so," Setting a pair of mugs on the table, she sat, waiting for the water to boil. "The other night, we went in to get parts for a new kind of armor, something to help counter your new powerhouses," grinning, she leaned back, smudging grease along her cheeks further. "Back in the day, Starfire wasn't so hard to deal with, with Mammoth. Now," shaking her head, she leaned on her hands, fingers a cradle for her chin. "Well, Shorty's working on something with the sonic drills, and the armors themselves." Shrugging, she gestured to her room, as Raven worked on the memory module she'd acquired. "

Nodding over the machine, Raven had to concede the point. "I imagine unless you were built like Mammoth or a kryptonian, getting hit by one of the new kids would put a rather large damper on your evening plans," she noted, remembering the few sparring matches she'd had with them recently. Only her demonic heritage had allowed her to shrug off those blows, something she didn't flaunt. "So you're building some armor for yourselves?"

"Mm, something like that," Jinx grinned, shrugging slightly. "Mostly, I think it's just something to keep him busy." Nodding to the computer, she stood, taking the boiling water in hand. "Now, what about your little porn collection, hmm?"

Rolling her eyes, Raven glared over the cover to the laptop. "It's not porn, you silly thing – it's better. Come see."

Pulling her chair closer, the quirky witch glanced over the data scrolling over the laptop, here eyes widening. "Oh my..."

"Indeed," the Titan breathed, images flashing by quickly, too fast to recognize beyond a glimmer.

Jinx's mouth worked silently for a moment, before she looked up at the Titan, her expression curious. "What do you intend to do with this... how much is in there," the young sorceress boggled, wondering at what precisely the Titan was about.

Raven leaned back, pulling the mask forward into the light, laying it on the the keyboard in full view of the Thief. "Everything, and... I believe," grinning up at the taller Hive girl, the Titan smirked.

"I shall do whatever I want," Raven said quietly.

* * *

A/N: Oh yes. I went there. And I shall continue to go there. More development to come. You know (or may not) that I don't leave things unexplained for too terribly long. Unless I want to. Teehee.


	3. Ch03, Persistence of Memory

**A Mirror, Darkly**

_Ch.3 – Persistence of Memory._

* * *

"I guess that begs the question, Raven... what do you want?"

She'd gone back out after Jinx went to sleep to think on that one.

Her room in their little space of the world was comfortable, cozy even by normal standards. There were still reminders and remainders of her past and heritage scattered about. One particular small key that was always kept out and visible. The twinned masks. Some things were kept hidden, but even out of sight, they influenced her mental landscape, and because of that, her physical one. The Mirror was bundled in cloth inside her dresser, much like some would keep a naughty secret. There was a book, under a lock that only a certain key would open.

Somewhere in the middle of being visible and hidden, was a small scrap of cloth, barely an inch wide in places. It rested in different locations, depending on things in the Tower. After all, she supposed, that was it's original home.

"What do I want," She asked the night sky, looking up into the blank darkness that the city rested under. She smiled mirthlessly. Folding in upon herself, the Titan shifted and came back to rest along the upper story of a bank building, overlooking San Francisco proper. The lights of the city left the sky an empty vault, unable to outshine the ambient light it shed. So, if in search of stars, one must look down in a city, she mused. A small voice in her mind chimed up again, reminding her that such dangerous questions, asking herself of wants and desires, tended to disastrous results. Candidly, she was prone to agree.

Her father's death...

She had been defined by that one event. Honed and trained since birth to resist his influence, then taking up arms to learn how to bend her demon's nature to heel, finally using her own power and that of her allies to once and for all time banish and destroy that essential core of hate that was her father. For a time she'd suspected that her facet, Rage, was an implanted fraction of his soul, the essence of the Beast, but in time she'd learned to accept a number of things.

Rage, she couldn't blame on her father. That beast was her own, and her own making. This lead to other revelations, or at least a tearing away of delusions. Without the scapegoat of her father there to blame all her base and irrational actions on, Raven had to come to grips that she was both significantly more and less than human. No magic cure, no fairytale ending; Trigon's death did little but ensure she would continue to live, the world as well around her, and that her mind was now totally her own. The demonic nature she was so trained to suppress suddenly reared it's ugly face, and it was her own.

The year after his defeat, Raven spent relearning her own mind, body and soul. What surprised her, initially, was that the entire process of her Father's prophesy had stripped her of the body she'd worn for her youth, her human shell. The process of the summoning, that let him enter this world had destroyed her body, but being of demonic heritage, this really didn't hamper her. Lost, confused and unsure, her soul self had assumed a child's guise and hidden. Her friends and enemies had ferreted her out of the apocalyptic world and reminded her in their own, of her resolve.

She'd killed her father, and in the resulting surge of power, never wondered at being whole, flesh and alive. Raven knew that she was fundamentally different now. Her body mutable, more so than before, a cloak to the soul-self that was the core of what she was.

Much like an onion, layers upon layers built her up, into the things she recognized as Raven. Far enough out, and one would only see the Titans. Further, the Tower.

She could see the luminous "T", out in the bay resting on it's base of sand and rock. After her father's demise, a number of things changed in the Tower as well. Most led her to here, the ones she kept abreast of at least. Beast Boy – Changeling as he called himself now, still pined for his lost Terra, outwardly doing all he could to still those memories, drive them back to stillness. He dated promiscuously, never really settling on anyone. He'd approached her, but with no results. Raven simply wasn't in a state to deal with him, anyone really then regardless of the terms. Cyborg, despite being the most verbally and obviously emotionally mature of them, proved to be less so than simply... unchanging. She'd taken his iron resolve and determination, his seeming boundless energy as a sign of his age and the ability to overlook obstacles and move on with life, live regardless. Truth was never so kind, and in his case, it was no different. Cyborg wasn't more mature, he simply put forth a very believable front, was accustomed to having to take control of situations and bulldog his way through.

Sighing, Raven drew back from her thoughts, observing them at a distance. She knew this particular track was dangerous, possibly damning, but continued. After all, she did ask a question. "What do I want?"

After her father's death, she'd felt... liberated. She dived into her emotions, glutted herself on them. Smirking, she looked along the skyline, letting memories cloud her vision. Mall trips with Starfire, going out to clubs. Things normal people would do so easily she was free to do, but freedom came with a cost, one she'd never considered.

So much pain. Memories.

She'd made a connection, something fundamental with Robin. During her father's attempt on this world, he'd come to save her. She'd been so lost, broken within and outside herself. Here was someone, who would singly, doggedly seek her out.

A part of her fixated on that. Immature, grasping, unsure – Raven had buried those ideas, inclinations deep, as deep as she dared, but never did she forget. Like all things buried, it grew, festered, bloomed and broke the surface. Stumbling along into desire, she'd approached, bravely she'd felt, and asked him... inexpertly, to help her.

Perhaps she'd waited too long. Perhaps she'd misjudged him. Or herself, seen in his eyes. The rebuff had been a harsh blow. He'd not given her a reason, simply an emphatic "no", and walked away. Raven had reached out, hand trailing along his face. It came away with a scrap of cloth. The same one that lay in her room, restless as her mind this night. He'd taken the name Nightwing that night, as if planned. Raven had walked away with his identity, and like changing clothes, he's assumed another.

"Perhaps... it's my turn then. To change." Shaking her head, Raven stood and let the wind claw at her, dragging her cloak away and snapping it harshly around her body. "Is what I want, to change?"

The wind of course, didn't answer. It never did when it mattered. Violet eyes looked out, surveying the city, while her mind did the same. Stretching out, growing tenuous and thin, her awareness flowed about the streets and buildings, the noise and activity like a fog. Her breath came slow and deep as the city spread out inside her mind, living. Breathing as she did. Raven felt them, all of them. How easy... to just. She smiled and let the sensation pass, along with the faint urge to absorb, envelop, _consume_ the myriad, chaotic emotions swirling beneath her.

Beneath her. She was above those urges. Above _them_. "What do I want? I've spent years not wanting... how the hell should I know," rolling her eyes, Raven sighed and hunched against her cloak, as if for warmth. She didn't feel the chill, the cold air that whipped her cloak biting against her skin, like invisible teeth. Raven did feel the cold of uncertainty, creeping up inside her and strangling her thoughts, though.

She had power. Already she was immensely powerful, an heir to hell itself, inheritor of all her father's power and station. All her years cloistered as a ward of the monks of Azarath dulled those instincts, turned the blade that rattled inside it's sheath, her abilities. Those urges, to be not only true to her blood, but her nature. "No, not my nature. My instincts, like every human, are impure. My soul may be shaped of the fabric of hell, but I chose to be something else. I am no conquerer," she murmured, fitting together the puzzle of herself again, the last of countless times.

"Here, I have something else," she murmured, fingers straying to the mask tucked into her belt again. "Here I have a doorway. I step through, and Raven isn't the person who exits."

Anonymity. Was it freedom? Or just an excuse to do things differently. "What would I have been, had I not joined the Titans? I guess I can find out now," she murmured, smiling slightly. "See the other side of the fence, check the color saturation of the grass...

"What do I want? I want... choices. Doors. Freedom. From myself, if necessary."

A darker shadow, looming along the skyline shrunk in on itself and as suddenly as it had appeared, faded from view.

I OoO I

That simple question had haunted her night, eventually even echoing into her dreaming.

Waking with less than a pleasant outlook, the Titan simply sat in bed, unmoving for some time as she considered that question further.

Scents drifted under her door, and in a short while, Raven decided breakfast was first on that list; anything less pertinent could wait. There weren't questions important enough to keep her from them, this morning.

The kitchen fairly gleamed in the early sun, something she shielded her eyes from with a small mumble. Jinx turned, a pan full of breakfast that would make Cyborg envious in her mittened hand. "Morning, you lazy woman. How do you want 'em?" Brandishing the pan of eggs, the Hive girl grinned slightly, waiting for Raven's mind to fall into gear.

"I think scrambled. It'd suit, today," she murmured, slinking into a chair and yawning. Nodding, Jinx turned back to the stove and set about cooking, her morning energy amusing if not shared by Raven. The Titan watched, sleepily disengaged from the world still, as the Thief swayed and hummed, fairly dancing as she cooked. She realized the girl had stopped and was giving her a quizzical look the same moment that she also realized she'd asked her a question, "Sorry, what?"

Smirking, Jinx set a hand to her hip and shook her head. "Not on the menu, but maybe I'll make an exception for you," she lilted, giggling after. When the Titan blinked in confusion, Jinx cackled, setting the heroes portion into a plate and sliding it to the girl. "You were zoned out watching my ass," she mumbled around a fork, starting in on her own meal.

Blushing, Raven looked to her food and tried to ignore the small snickers from the other side of the table. She was reminded again of their odd coincidences, the circumstances that led to her and the quirky witch being roommates.

Three years they'd lived together, the time punctuated by fairly major events in each girl's life. Initially, Raven could track her own history leading to where she was, the origin point for it anyway, being that pivotal moment of her Father's death. Trigon's defeat had been something she almost couldn't have hoped for, but in the aftermath...

She'd been lost. Unsure of what to do with herself. Too many options she found, were nearly as limiting as none.

"Make up your mind, from last night?" Jinx's question roused her from her own introspection, pulling her to the present with a jerk.

The Titan looked up, her breakfast ignored for a moment as she thought over the answer, as it was, that she'd come to the previous night. "I guess what anyone really wants. To have options," she answered, after a small time.

Jinx shook her head, reaching over to claim her juice with a serious look on her face, something that pulled Raven fully into the conversation. "No, that's not what I mean. Obviously you have some plans, or you'd not have gone through the trouble of getting all those records," tilting her head the Thief's lips thinned, and she stood. Walking to the counter she pulled another bottle from their cupboards, this one containing a fair portion of amber liquid. Her back still turned, Jinx continued, "I may not be the best reference, I mean look at me. But, you've got something valuable there, in that Tower. Friends, a life you've made, even if you see it more as a gilded cage."

Sighing, the Titan stilled her fork, her breakfast tasting like ash suddenly. "I get it. I do, but it's time. Jinx, you more than anyone know what – who I am. You've lived in the same place with me, dealt with me, dealing with myself and them.

"Yes they are my friends. But they never could understand what I am, beyond the uniform," she added, shaking her head and standing, moving to the doorway to her room. She favored the Thief with a grateful smile, thanking her for breakfast, but walking away just the same. "Listen, I understand if you don't want me to do something stupid or dangerous, that's... well that's why I think of you as a friend."

"Then as your friend, I'll ask that you're sure this is what you want. One misstep and you'll be burning so many bridges. I don't want you to be backed into a corner, losing those things important to you," Jinx replied, forgetting her juice and taking a hard pull of the rum from the bottle.

Raven looked away, eyes hooded. "Should I worry about bridges, when I spread my wings to fly?" she asked quietly, knowing Jinx would hear but not waiting for an answer. Closing the door to her room, the Titan left Jinx to her own company.

The Thief looked at the bottle in her hands, eyes narrowing. Here she was, a walking contradiction. She'd been asking the Titan to consider joining her team for a long time now, for various reasons. One, she was a talented girl; Jinx felt she'd never really explored her abilities to their limit, but she never pushed the topic. Raven made it clear her limits and her allowances toward them were her own business. Still, she was powerful. Two, she was intelligent enough to know she had limits, and had been a tactical advisor to the Titans for years. She obviously would be an asset to any team... but also she was her friend. She like spending time with the quiet girl, seeing her open up and express herself more.

"So why am I trying to talk her out of it now?" she asked the bottle in her hands. When it didn't answer she snarled, flinging the thing away from her, the glass shattering on the far wall with crash. Cursing everything, Jinx stalked to her room, waving a hand at the mess against the wall, the shattered glass. Forgotten, her breakfast cooled on the table, only half eaten.

Raven heard the commotion, and peered out of her room, mind clear of the questions and concerns for the moment as she sought out Jinx and what happened. The last lingering traces of the alcohol and glass shards were evaporating, crackling with neon energy as she watched.

The Titan turned, making her way back to the Trophy Room. Placing the mask back in it's place, she snapped the flash drive into the wrist feed for the underskin, connecting it to the mask. Closing the hell-wrought guarding shell, she turned to her own space, ignoring the sounds from the Thief's room.

I OoO I

"Anything?" Cyborg asked, coming up behind Nightwing as he pored over the video cameras, sensor readouts, pressure charts, attempting to absorb the various data offered by the Tower as if it were sustenance.

Eyes narrowing behind his mask, the Detective leaned back and stretched, muscles tense and angry at his long stint at the computers. "Nothing. Whoever it was, they moved in and out like a ghost. They knew every corner to avoid, every trick and turn to dodging the cameras and pressure plates.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say it was a Titan, but I can't think that." Spinning in his chair once, he faced away from the monitors and data, rubbing at dry eyes. "Besides, we've been compromised before, I can't assume the easy solution."

Nodding, the metal man sat heavily in a chair and looked over the camera feed running there idly. "Why is he back?"

"Who knows. It's been years since whoever had it last disappeared. I had assumed they breached the power core, or maybe even just gave up. Obviously I was wrong."

"I mean, are we sure it was Red-X? From what I remember, he'd have at least used some of those suit's gimmicks on us, or the Tower, just for the hell of it." Clicking through feeds, Cyborg frowned. "But nothing, not even a hair. That's too clean."

Nightwing nodded, turning a grim face to his long-time friend. "That's what worries me. Someone who knows the suit, knows us, and the Tower. At least all they took the time to take was the belt." Snorting, the young man kicked his chair away from the desk, standing. "Not that having it isn't bad enough."

Cyborg pulled up data on the secondary power system for the suit, glancing over the classification on the file. Only Nightwing would be able to open it. "What is that thing man? What did you make?"

"A monster," the Titan said, turning to the monitors again, eyes closed. "You know what powers it, Xenothium. Unstable at best, catastrophic at worst. Whoever's in that suit is a walking bomb."

Shaking his head, Cyborg looked over the available information, not understanding. "I don't get it, what do you mean?"

"Xenothium is a variable 'sticky' molecule. It's not an element, so much as a catalytic superglue. It can be used to bond things into temporary stronger-than-steel bonds, chemically active gases, superadhesives. The possibilities are only limited by the suit's power supply, the data available, and available material. Usually air is sufficient to supply the base compounds, but skin residue is also available to it. That allows it a vast chemical array. That's how it can make just about anything, as long as the supply of Xenothium is sufficient."  
"Whoa," was all Cyborg could offer, shaking his head. "And that's just the suit?"

"It's a two-part system. Belt is the secondary power, where the Xenothium weapons system are fed. The suit on it's own is a combat-adaptive analytical computer and armor system. Light power armor with an onboard tactical advisor, more or less.

"What worries me, isn't the suit, or the belt, but what the person who has it is planning." Nightwing cleared the computer of security and schematics, pulling up locations worldwide of Xenothium supplies. Only three returned 'active' results, meaning there were some activity with the material, mined, stored or used for lab experimentation. Russia, China and the Metropolis vault of the JLA were the only ones to come up. "Regardless of that, if they plan on using it... they'll need fuel at some point. If nothing else, that suit's predictable.

"It'll run dry. Then I'll get it back. And destroy it."

I OoO I

Jinx woke the next day to sounds she wasn't familiar with, which she blamed on the fact she'd been up for most of the night 'redecorating'. The shambles of her room greeted her, along with a nasty catch in her neck from sleeping wrong the night before.

It was hard to sleep right, she mused, sprawled on a pile of parts and tools. Standing, she started on her morning routine when the sounds rang out again, her brow furrowing as she tried to figure out what it was that Raven was up to. Sighing, she cut short her personal regimen and sought out her roommate.

"Raven?" She called, having looked all about the apartment with no sign of the girl. "Where is she," the Thief muttered, making her way back to the bedroom when more of the odd echoing sounds rang out. "And what the hell is that?" Grumpy, hungry, still annoyed from yesterday's argument and generally not a ray of sunshine, the girl had nearly made it to her room when a hand grabbed her and pulled her...

Nowhere. "Uh?" Looking around, she saw a pair of grey eyes regarding her and meeped.

"It's ok, just me. Hold on, forgot this place isn't kind to normal eyes," a familiar voice, Raven's, sounded, her usual light rasp more pronounced this morning. Awareness of the place seemed to seep into her mind from the corners. It was disconcerting.

"Where is this?" the Thief asked, looking around at the place she was in. It looked, for all the world, like their apartment but also very much not. Decayed, broken, rotting – the room they were in was the mirror of the living room, but the walls sagged and bore cracks, the paint chipped or missing or discolored where it was still clinging like mold to the walls. The floor practically writhed with the things crawling on it, and she shuffled back with wide eyes at the sight.

Raven looked about, smiling slightly. "Home, or a suburb of it. It's ok, the place is mostly illusion, nothing here can hurt you. Not this deep anyway," taking Jinx's hand, she pulled the girl onto her feet with ease.

Looking around, Jinx had to admit it did seem surreal. The colors seemed... faded. Sketched almost. Things almost looked as if she were viewing it through a filter, or a light haze. "Home? I thought home was back in Kansas. This is not Kansas."

Laughing quietly, Raven shook her head, "Not your home, silly. Hell, I meant. I wa-

"You pulled me into hell? What the... hell!?"

"Calm down. It's more like a pocket of reality at this depth," Raven soothed, noting the girl's panicked look. "I wanted to practice, but can't use the Tower. So rather than possibly blow up the apartment, I was blowing up this place."

Looking around her, Jinx had to admit, there were signs of hulksmashitude having recently been laid down. "Well, at least it won't come out of our deposit," she muttered, only then noticing in the gloom that Raven had the X-suit on. "So, um. How's it working?"

Raven grinned, shrugging. "Hard to say. It's kinda like a swiss army knife," she answered, sending the mental cue for the mask to move from it's 'open' form to closed. Open, it retracted down, in much the same way the rest of the suit redistributed itself, into a wide choker. She imagined it helped keep the wearer's identity hidden, being able to alter voice and still be in contact with it's critical contact point at the back of the neck.

Jinx stood back, blinking. With Raven's face apparent, it wasn't hard to see her, but once the mask was up, all she could really admit, was that whoever was in the suit, was Red-X. It masked her curves and build without much change from it's appearance so long ago. She mused to herself this was probably due to the suit being made by someone in their mid-teens, as Raven had informed her. Lucky then, that the Titan wasn't all that tall...

Scanning through her menus, Raven settled on something relatively demonstrative. "Ok, imagine that chair is say... Seemore, or one of the Green Lanterns," pointing, she indicated the dilapidated clone of one of their recliners. She was still adjusting to the suit, so it took a moment for her to force the thing to react as if to a real threat, but as Jinx stood watching, the suit obeyed. Raven's gauntleted hand flashed, the Xenothium powered weapons system firing an X-shaped blast at the chair.

As it moved, the "arms" stretched and closed, forming a bubble around the chair, as the momentum of it's wall striking the thing rolled the apparatus across the room, banging into things as it went. "What the heck is that?" Jinx asked, walking up to the globe and poking it with a finger. She blinked, as it seemed solid, despite it's transparency and thin wall.

"Force-resistant barrier. You can't blast out, it'll just absorb the impact and energy, getting tougher," the Titan explained, walking up and laying a hand on the thing, the material immediately going ductile and flowing back into the gauntlet, steam rising from the contact point. "It's amazing what this thing can do."

"No kidding... so. Is that what all that data you got was? Material to program the suit for weapons and defenses?" When Raven nodded, Jinx raised a brow. "So, you still plan on going against your friends with this thing?"

Sighing, Raven keyed her mask down. "I don't know. But Jinx, remember where we are," gesturing around, she indicated the rotting walls and floors. "For all they know about me, this they don't. This is part of who I am. A part that I can't get them to understand. When I defeated my father, I inherited a piece of Hell. How to I explain to them, that not only am I bound to that, but also... well that I..." banging her hand into a wall, she went silent for long moments.

Jinx moved closer, laying a hand on her shoulder, peering beyond the violet locks of the Titan's hair as she tried to search her face. "Hey, it's me here. You know, nothing you could say would phase me," she soothed, running her hand along the resilient outer layer of the suit.

"I know. I guess it's something I'm still dealing with myself," grinning up at the Thief, she shrugged. "The universe is a balance. Demons work to give definition to it. Without the light and dark working on the things within it, there would be no perspective, no depth." Taking Jinx's hand, she pulled them with a feeling of moving from very hight to low pressure back into the well-lit comfort of their own home. "I'm responsible, for sin. I am sin, now."

Scoffing, Jinx regarded the Titan with a raised brow. "You don't even drink. I ain't buying."

"I'm serious. My father was the embodiment of Wrath, and though... well I can't seem to grasp the depth of that myself, not yet, it's my... responsibility." Sighing, she leaned back and fell into a chair, the early morning workout tiring her more than she'd thought it would. "My nature, something I've always rebelled against, was to be a demon. To embody and by sowing those elements, work for the aims of Hell."

Taking this in, Jinx sat on the couch beside her roommate, considering her quietly. "So, that's what this is all about? You're having a midlife crisis?"

"Some days I wish we could talk without you turning it into a joke somehow," the Titan grumbled.

"Serious here," Jinx countered, leaning back. "You're trying to figure out who you are, what you want out of your life. This suit is your expensive sports car," she shrugged, when Raven's eyes widened. "You're recapturing your youth, a chance to define something you had to put behind you, by taking on a safe identity. Red-X means Raven is safe to be good, while the girl in the suit can be bad."

"..." Slumping slightly, Raven had no answer to that. Was she really doing it, just as Jinx said? "I don't think of it quite like that," she murmured, considering her own logic carefully. "I want to put aside the me that I know. Raven is still inside this suit, guiding it, but what would I have been without the Titans? If I hadn't been sequester by the monks of Azarath, what would I be now?"

"Do you think the suit will let you see that?"

Raven regarded the other girl with a small smile. "No. Not entirely. But it will let me see a side of the world I've only faced with a closed fist." Standing and walking toward the Hive girl, she held out her hand as if to pull Jinx up to her feet.

Her gaze locked on that hand, Jinx reached out, looking up only as their hands clasped. "So. I take it you want to meet the family?"

"Well, I figure after three years, I'm overdue."

* * *

A/N: A little history, to set a stage.


	4. Ch04, Dangerous Liaisons

**A Mirror, Darkly**

_Ch.4 – Dangerous Liaisons_

* * *

Jinx fidgeted with the grill a few moments, before looking back to the Titan with a serious cast to her face. "So you think this is going to work?"

"It will work," Raven replied, nodding at the bad luck charm as they sat over tea, discussing what to do, their time spent in dialog about the plan, before the guests arrived..

Jinx shook her head twice, nose up in the air. "I don't know... "

Sighing, Raven leaned on a hand, an eyebrow raised, "And why not?"

Holding up a hand, Jinx pointed at her fingers, wiggling them under Raven's nose, "Oh, let's count shall we?" She poked her pointer finger savagely, pushing it down as she continued. "One! Your voice. You sound nothing like Red-X, and at least four of the Hive have heard him talk, at least."

Rolling her eyes, Raven pulled on the suit's mask, and replied. "And why wouldn't Red-X sound like Red-X?"

Blinking, Jinx's mouth worked silently for a few moments. "...did you know you sound just like Red-X when you have-" Flying backwards, her chair kicked over, the Thief continued, her hands shooting up over the edge of the table. "Two! Don't know anything about how he acted!" Jinx's middle finger was lowered.

"I don't need to know. How hard can it be to act like a paranoid, egomaniac thief?" Jinx popped her head up over the edge of the table, glaring at the Titan. "Hey, I wasn't talking about you there."

"Good, because I'm not paranoid. Three!" Stabbing another finger, she wiggled the remaining two at Raven, "You don't know anything about Red-X's style and abilities. You can't pretend to be him unless you could outfight Robin." The Thief smirked at Raven, leering, "And I know from experience you hit like a girl." Sticking her tongue out, Jinx was suddenly staring at Raven's suited hand, holding the end of it. "Erah. Nicsss trikth. Tan Ah haff thaath bach naow?"

Raven grinned back, shaking her head. "Covered. Next?" she asked, releasing Jinx's tongue.

"Oh, er. Right! Four!" Jinx poked another finger, than paused, tapping her chin with the remaining pinky. "One _million_ dollars!" Ducking, the punch Raven sent her way, eye twitching the entire time, the Thief grinned. "Sorry, couldn't resist. But seriously, you have no network. You can't be a thief, without a network of contacts and information."

Raven shrugged, waving to the laptop. "I have all the JLA and Tower records. If I had the Brotherhood ones..." trailing off, she grinned slightly.

"Kinda creepy when you do that, just sayin'" Jinx noted, shaking her head. "But... I suppose that's what tonight's about isn't it? Getting you a network, or at least some contacts. I'll help out... but I just want to make sure you understand how this works. Till things get solid, we'll work off my usual people, freelance. If it gets hot for some reason... well. We can say you were checking up on me, as perspective partner or something. Testing the water I work in," tapping her chin in thought, Jinx nodded, satisfied with that angle. "We'll deal with that bridge when we have more gasoline..." Jinx's brow furrowed and she nodded, apparently to her own conversation. "Last point. The Titans. Eventually they'll notice you're not there."

At this point, Raven walked out into the yard, wearing her cloak and leaned across the other Raven's shoulders, resting her head beside her copy's as Jinx finished, causing the girl to blink and look from one Raven to another. The Titan in the X-suit smirked. "Why? You didn't."

"...do you have any idea what the potential for this is-" ducking, she barely managed to dodge the twin Titan's attacks. "Seriously! If I could do that I'd never leave my bedroom!"

Her head, the one attached to the X-suit, banged onto the table. "Leave it to you, to turn a conversation about me meeting the Hive and expanding my network, into something about sex."

"Sex? I was talking about fashion. You'd never have to worry about getting an outfit wrong – live model! But now that you mention it, would it be more like masturbation or incest? Cause well, ther-"

"God damn it, I'm being serious here!"

"I am too! You think I'll ever be able to tell you to go fuck yourself again without falling over laughing my ass off?"

The twin Ravens looked at each other a moment, before turning to glare at the suddenly nervous Jinx. To her left, the X-suited Raven's face went obscure, as the mask snapped into place, the red highlights glowing menacingly. To her right, the Titan's robes started flapping in a mysterious wind, as her eyes went red and slitted under her hood. "I'll get her right-

"I'll get the left," the two finished, lunging after the now-fleeing Thief.

_I OoO I_

"How do you like yours?"

Raven looked up, trying to take in the reality of the moment. Failing, she shook her head hard, and asked the devilishly grinning Thief to repeat herself. "Sorry, what?"

Jinx waved her chosen implement in the air, Raven's eyes widening, sputtered, "Ah, I..."

"Well, what is it then? Long? Fat? How about one of these little ones, seeing as I don't know what you like and all-"

"Cooked. Charred even," Glaring, the demoness stalked up the cackling Thief, where she'd been arranging the grill and the sausages for the barbecue. Their guests would be arriving soon, and though Raven was nervous... she was more concerned about how her guests would take her.

Prancing about and humming happily, the Hive girl bobbed her head to the side, regarding the Titan with a gleaming eye. "So, like it hot eh? We can do that, yes we can," she lilted, breaking briefly into song, as she lit the grill with a spark, cocking her fingers like a gun and 'firing' with a gleeful "Bang!"

Raven watched all this with a wary eye, her eyebrow raised. "You really are having far too much fun with this."

Shrugging, the Thief continued on with her task, working quickly despite the dancing. "Well, I suppose at least one of us should," she shot back, wrinkling her nose at the stoic Titan.

Raven slumped into a chair, watching her roommate do both their shares in preparing the evening's festivities. "I mean, what do I do? How can I just... I don't know. Relax? What do villains do when they have a damn cookout?"

Jinx sighed, giving the Titan her best 'Are you kidding me' look. Sauntering over, her iPod still blaring who-knew-what europop at jet-engine levels, the Thief took the chair across from Raven and pulled it forward so they were bunched together, knees against one another's thighs. Leaning forward as if to share a secret, Jinx took Raven's face in her hands and turned her ear to her lips. "Listen. I know this is hard for you to get. Hell, when I was in your Tower, I still couldn't reconcile the whole thing, but here's the bottom line. The dirty secret, the morbid truth.

"When we bad guys come together to party, we usually drink. And eat. And play party games," her expression becoming more droll by the second, Jinx leaned back, kicking over Raven's chair and sending the Titan flailing and falling backwards with a shout. "You aren't dumb. I know you can't really think even we can't unwind."

Glaring, the Titan puffed a lock of violet hair from her face. "That's not what I mean! You realize I can't even eat in that mask?"

"Yes, actually, you can," the Thief corrected her, standing and walking into the apartment without a backwards glance.

Raven's mouth worked silently for a moment, before her eyes narrowed. "How the hell would you know that?" she called after Jinx, stalking after the quirky witch and back into the kitchen. She found her target balancing a tray of kebobs and some plates, flatware and cups in what could not have been a physically possible arrangement. "Holy hell let me get-"

"Back off or the kitten gets it!" the bad luck charm screeched, a potholder with a kitten embroidered on it's back held in her teeth. Speaking around the thing, she bobbed her head toward the refrigerator, "Ifsh you wantsh to helpth, getsh ze drinksh," she mumbled.

"How can you scream at me then two seconds later barely manage english, with the same thing in your mouth?" shaking her head, Raven simply went to work filling the cooler with ice and sodas.

Jinx's simple answer, given as she waltzed out the door laden with what looked like half their kitchen, made her eye twitch. "Talent," said clearly, and with a distinct cockney accent.

"I am going to kill her."

_I OoO I_

"I don't get it," Jinx mumbled, the preparations made and everything ready for her Hive family to arrive. "I mean, what's it been? Three years we've been roommates, and since like day one, I've tried to get you on my side. Why now?" Leaning on her hand, she regarded the Titan, now in her new guise.

Raven had donned the suit as planned, some time before the first guests were to arrive, and was currently using the holographic mode for the mask. She had no idea the thing was so variable, but on a hint from Jinx who'd apparently seen the former Red-X eating something in a seedier part of town, she'd queried the thing and found that the hood retracted down to a thick band, like a high collar, about her throat. The base-of-neck connection had to be maintained for more advanced controls, but that wasn't compromised. "It's... complicated." she answered simply, still surprised at her own voice. Rather, Red-X's voice.

Leveling a glare that would curdle milk at the Titan, Jinx huffed. "What about you isn't?"

"No need to get petty, Jinx," Raven chided, but there was a kernel of truth to the Thief's words. "Listen. How much choice have you been given? In your life, what you could do, who you could be?"

"Tons," Jinx answered simply, but continued shortly after, "Well, you know. Orphanage, Hive, Metagene. You get pigeonholed to a degree, but I really could have gone a lot of directions."

Raven considered the taller girl quietly a moment. "So they didn't all lead to the Hive?"

"Nu-uh," she mumbled around a toothpick, shaking her head. "I mean, back when I was young enough to get into the government lead-in programs to the JLA – and they do exist, the situation was being led by people with a very black and white view of the world.

"Batman, Superman," Jinx paused, shrugging. "Robin seems to have wised up since he got some fashion sense, but those programs? Still not too attractive."

The Titan looked to the sky, stars barely visible. "So you went Hive so you could have... options?"

"Pretty much. I could have bailed, and went under the radar, but why? I got an education, and a diploma that will hold water thanks to some fancy legality. I got training in just about anything I showed aptitude at, and when it comes to what we were allowed to do... well. We're not so black and white, I guess." Smiling, Jinx dropped her usual mask and spoke frankly to the Titan. "You would have liked it. They don't make judgments, only try to make you the best you, in there."

Seeing this side of Jinx more than most, Raven wasn't as stunned as she imagined some would be at her frank tone, the quiet seriousness of her expression. "But what about the whole Brother Blood thing? That wasn't a very positive situation."

"Brief, though. He was around a year, like a mistake in hiring. Now that we're under the Brotherhood, things work much better," Jinx wrinkled her nose at the mention of the brainwashing Brother Blood, proof enough those times weren't her favorite. Regardless, Raven had to admit there was some appeal to what she said. The League themselves had turned her down, on Zatanna's suggestion, because of her Father and the prophesy. She'd practically had to resort to her own brainwashing to get the Titans together, and luckily chemistry had taken over soon after.

Smirking, she shook her head at the memory. Batman's shadow, an Alien Princess, an angst-ridden Cyborg, and a shapeshifting pre-teen with delusions of grandeur. There was no way in hell, well one way... that they'd been able to work together without some emotional surgery on her part. "I guess that's where we're different. I didn't have many choices, to get done what had to be," Raven mumbled, her memories drawing her back into better, sometimes worse, times. "If I hadn't found a way to overcome my father, I'd have been lost, a sacrifice to his coming. I'd barely been in this dimension for a week, and the only people I felt could stop him were the JLA. When they turned me down, Robin was there, and probing his mind I found that there was a younger generation, one that may be strong enough in time to stop him." Sighing, she leaned back, an odd detachment washing over the Titan. Hearing the story in another voice was odd. It made it feel unreal, like it wasn't her life anymore. Regardless, she continued, "Maybe the Hive would have helped, maybe not. The only people stronger than us, wouldn't have cared, or simply done the easy thing to stop Trigon.

"Just kill me before my birthday," smirking, she shrugged when Jinx's eyes widened in shock. "I'd considered it too, when I was in my hero mode, back before his death. I felt all my good deeds would help me, maybe. Absolve some of the taint on my soul, make me stronger. I was wrong, all that nearly lost me that chance. It wasn't what I did, but who I'd chosen to be. I had friends, ones that helped me call on those good parts of myself, the ones that my Father couldn't understand, and therefore not defend against." Raven shook off her reminiscing with a small laugh. "Which is why I won't simply leave the Titans. I owe them."

Jinx tilted her head, regarding the Titan curiously, "Then... why this?" Gesturing to the suit, she earned a small chuckle from the masquerading Raven.

"So I can be something else. I may feel bound, obligated to work with and help the Titans, but I'm still me. I'm tired of fighting my nature, adhering to rules made by paranoid monks that only cared about hiding their secret – they were responsible for Trigon being born at all.

"I want off that damn pedestal! I'm me, not some ideal. And I'm not perfect – not perfectly good or evil. I want a chance to figure out who I am, without a all of two worlds dropping expectations on my head."

Nodding, Jinx stood and came across to the Titan, wrapping the surprised girl in a hug quietly. "I'm sorry, I didn't know," she murmured, running a hand along Raven's back.

Somewhat at a loss, the Titan simply nodded, feeling like some weight had lifted free of her in the telling. As Jinx had said, it had been three years since they'd become roommates, and in that time they'd gotten close, but never had Raven crossed the line to making it personal. A false start with trying to go to college had started her on the way to leaving the Tower, and meeting her, doing the same had finished things. The two had been wary friends, but soon it was apparent that neither had the inclination to betray the other.

It seemed they'd had enough of that on their own, to do it to another. Raven had dropped out, unable to reconcile her schedule with the Titans to her classload, while Jinx had continued, gaining her first four-year degree in two. They'd remained roommates, somehow dancing around any odd moments by chance, planning or sheer luck, keeping the secret from either side.

Jinx maintained that the simple probability of it did all the work. How could the universe ruin such a perfect joke? Raven was inclined to scoff at her humor, until she remembered that Jinx was the most powerful probability-shifter on the planet, and according to the records she had, likely a few others.

It helped explain a few things.

"I should pull down that damn poster one day when you're at work," Raven grumbled, earning her a grin from her roommate. "You cheated! That bet didn't count."

Indignant, the Thief poked her in the side, ineffectually with the suit on. "Ow. And I didn't cheat, you just got sore because you couldn't!"

"Empathy isn't cheating! And having probability bend with your grin isn't?" Raven shot back, glaring. She realized the Thief couldn't see it through the mask and grumbled.

Waving the argument off, the Thief snickered, prancing around the back yard as she inspected the preparations one last time. It was nearing 6 o'clock after all, "It stays, till you give me something better to put up there," she lilted, bringing other questions to Raven's mind.

Those would wait till later, she asserted, the sound of a car door closing and a shrill voice nearby getting her attention.

"Uhmm. Are you sure it's not too late for me to bail out and go to a movie?" the Titan muttered, the urge to dash inside and get her cloak nearly overpowering.

A short laugh was her only answer, as Jinx nearly broke the sound barrier and their back door going to greet her friends. Raven was glad she'd managed to have a wall or three between herself and the girl when her screeched greeting sounded. Raven sat nervously as she heard the sounds of people chatting, but soon stilled, remembering who, and what, she was. At least for the moment.

Inside, Jinx stood before the door to the back yard, having denied the other HIVE guests to go wandering around the apartment. Her excuse was dirty laundry – no sane male would dare go and disturb Jinx's unmentionables. And what females were there knew they weren't safe either. "Guys," she began, turning to regard the first group of guests with a disturbingly serious expression. "I'd like you all to meet a new partner I'm taking on."

Silence, and some shared, confused glances met her declaration. Without another word Jinx dashed out the back door, leaving it open in obvious invitation, as the first wave of guests stumbled out, to meet what would leave an indelible mark on most of their minds.

Raven had been waiting, schooling her anxiety into a calm mask of silence till her ears caught the barely audible declaration by Jinx. When the deck door slammed open, she turned her head, and was met with one of the most frightening things she'd ever witnessed.

Jinx lunged at her, knocking the suited Teen backwards and out of her chair with a muffled thump. The two landed, with the Thief straddling her waist, grinning down impishly, hands pinning the suited girl to the ground in her dazed state. "Play along," she whispered hotly, leaning down suddenly in the cover of the table.

From their vantage, the collected HIVE could only blink as their leader hit what some recognized to be Red-X with a flying tackle, catching the man off guard and laying him flat under the quirky girl's tender ministrations. From their side of the table, they barely caught a slight muffled question before Red-X's mask was pulled up slightly, letting Jinx...

Lay a serious lip-lock on the prone "man".

Mammoth blinked, looking around at his team with a blank look. "Thought she played for the other team?"

"Apparently that meant... uhm. Oh hell I dunno," Cheshire added, eyes widening as Red-X's foot, toes curled, flailed up into view briefly.

Gizmo, looking decidedly green, lost what minimal composure he had at that point. "SPEW! Oh My God, get a room you freaks!"

"Murgle," Raven-as-Red answered, getting her head back in gear after the rapid-fire surprises thanks to the rather happily wriggling girl splayed on her.

Taking the opportunity, figuring Raven was about ready to blast her into the next yard over, Jinx disentangled herself from the suited girl and hopped back, grinning so much her head threatened to separate into two. "Hee, don't mind him – always was the shy sort. Just needed someone to crack his shell," she stage whispered to their shocked guests.

Red-X stood, rubbing the back of his head slowly, muttering something about "skulls" and "shell my ass" to people who were paying attention. Those few snickered, while the other's eyes were plastered to Jinx still. Well, everyone's but Billy Numerous, who's gaze and nose fastened on the grill sitting unattended nearby. "Hooo, yeah! Open grill baby! Come to Billy, beautiful!"

As one the attending's eyes an attention snapped to the multipicitous man, as he dashed for the grill and the afternoon's food. Shouts followed, "Stop him!", "Oh not my food!", "THE HUMANITY", "Traitorous scum!", "Toilet-breath goat jockey!" among them, as well as others. The final battle played out quickly, with Billy getting restrained before making off with a small army's worth of food, all for himself. Red-X stood by the sideline, watching with open amazement.

"I'm back in the damn Tower," was Raven's stunned thought, before a cup of beer was shoved in her hand and she was led off to chat with the guys.

_I OoO I_

Cheshire, Angel and Sunstar chatted with Jinx, occasionally casting glances their way, off by the fence reminding Raven again of the peculiar situation she was in. The one thing she'd not considered when planning this "Meet-and-greet" nightmare was the fact that Red-X was a guy.

She had to mingle with males. Sweet Azar what had she done...

"So you and Pinky huh?" A gruff voice to her... upper right asked, snapping her back to the immediate nightmare ten seconds of inattention had earned the Titan. Curse those moments of introspection!

"Uhhh... " She managed weakly, when a warm hand closed over her free one, dragging the suited Teen away from the questioning Mammoth.

Looking to her captor, a ball of concentrated dread welled up in her stomach, as she was being led to the fence where the girls were stationed, Jinx grinning her Cheshire smile over her shoulder. Raven swallowed, imagining that throwing herself on the grill would be a more merciful fate than what the Thief had in mind for her immediate future. "Jinx, what the hell!?" she snarled under he breath, as they were out of earshot from either side of the yard.

"Told you, play along. You asked to be introduced to my network, you didn't ask how."

Rolling her eyes, Raven had to remind herself that Jinx's cunning was only second to that of the Joker himself.

Smirking, the Thief detoured them to the drinks, refilling her own neglected cup. "Here's the thing, sweet-cheeks," she started, making Raven's color rise at the affectionate pet name. "They'd be so immediately wary of anyone approaching me, for sponsorship at least, because I don't do it. Ever." Nodding to the group, she continued. "I have to stay objective when it comes to membership, and team rosters."

Raven considered this a moment, her brow furrowing. "But you said you could introduce me-"

"I did, and I am," Jinx interrupted, wrinkling her nose at the Titan. "They'd not take my recommendation without time in training and interviews in the Hive," she said, shrugging, "but they will deal with someone I am involved with, knowing that someone in that position would be trusted with... well a lot more than just times and plans." Leering with a chuckle, the Thief began the other half of their trek across the back yard.

"So that's why you kissed me?" Raven groused, still somewhat stunned on numerous levels by the blatant action.

Jinx huffed, rolling her eyes. "'Course not."

"... then why did you-"

"Because I wanted to, silly," the quirky witch said, as if it were the answer to all Raven's questions.

The Titan finished their walk in silence, head spinning like a top.

Jinx yanked her forward, and Raven blinked, windmilling a bit to keep her balance as the girls of the Hive snickered at her. "I see you've made quite the impression, Jen," Sunstar smirked, shaking her head at the off-balanced Red-X.

Her comment set off a round of chuckles from the other girls, which annoyed Raven to the point of pulling her hand free of Jinx's grasp. "I was just-"

"-Mentioning how nice it'll be to work with me in the near future," Jinx smoothly finished, grinning massively at the gob-smacked Raven.

"...Right, working together." she repeated lamely.

The girls shared a knowing look, barely contained mirth among the expressions flickering over their faces. Raven was suddenly aware of how it must feel to be male, around so many females and realized that part of Jinx's plan was to keep her off center enough to play her own part well enough. That part being the smitten male that had snagged the quirky ball of energy's eye.

"Hi," Raven snapped back to the moment, in time to take and shake a hand belonging to the Asian girl in a light green kimono. "Name's Cheshire, nice to finally meet the man who can best the Colorblind Crusader." Snickering at the nickname, they shared a few minutes of chatter about Robin, now Nightwing, the girls paying rapt attention to the "man" that had such insight into the heroes mind.

Angel tilted her head, shaking it slowly. "Amazing. It's like you've worked with him for years," she murmured, clearly impressed.

Reaching up and rubbing the back of his neck slightly, Red tried to relay a nervous grin through the mask, "Well, he did make this suit. I just happened to be a really fast study, and picked up what he knew faster than most," she said, amused at her bold-faced honesty; how well it fit, how little it actually said.

Catching Jinx's snicker in her peripheral, Raven turned to poke the Thief, finding herself in a fast-escalating, silly fight that left the two grappling and finally embracing, much to Raven's embarrassment. The first thing that the Titan resolved to do, once this was over, is talk to the Thief at length about her unusual fixation. Particularly with her behind, she noted, yanking Jinx's hands north of her belt for the third time in so many minutes.

Seeing an opening, Sunstar smirked and came back into Raven's field of vision. "So, how did you two hook up? Never heard of our little minx here going out, but it looks like she's got things well in hand..." Raven rolled her eyes, as the comment seemed timed with another grope from Jinx, accompanied by a chuckle.

"I guess I'm just lucky like that," the Titan ground out, glad for the suit's voice modulator.

Jinx picked up the comment and ran, leaning on Raven's shoulder, idly. "We met a few years ago actually. I was on a heist, during training days, and we ended up in the same territory. It was a blast, that first time," she smirked, looking up at Raven, an evil glint in her eye. "I swear, I think the earth moved that day."

Raven's eye twitched, remembering the fight from the day they met, where the combined attack from Mammoth and Jinx had opened up a chasm that let Robin fall from the fight for hours. She supposed that Jinx was playing the same game she was. Raven decided to call her bluff, "Oh yes, definitely. And later that night, I had to reclaim my top from her," snickering openly, Raven watched the Thief's color rise sharply, as her friends collapsed into a fit of laughter at their leader's expense.

They indulged in more idle chatter, less at each other's expense at that point forward, the battle lines clearly defined now.


End file.
